Getting Playmobilized, Part 2-- Reviewing Figures!)

Alright, now let's talk about my favorite designs of Playmobil figures and Playmobil Fi?ures. First, context on the Fi?ures in specific.

[Please read part 1 of this series if you haven't already.]

LEGO's Minifigures line was one of the earlier toys in the blind-packaging craze. 

LEGO photo of the Series 1 case artwork.

The line debuted with sixteen mystery figures, each representing a defined archetype not often (or not at all) represented in LEGO's main sets. Many are first-time characters that LEGO perhaps couldn't build a set or theme around, a few are more mundane or civilian, and others are throwbacks to older LEGO themes. As the Minifigures line continued, the characters became more inventive and higher in production value, with the figures being highly desirable and personable characters. Most Minifigures' heads and bodies are printed specifically for the characters without being reused from earlier material, though a few later figures have reused earlier prints. The popularity of the highly distinct Minifigures even likely inspired a shift in the main-set characters (such as in the long-running City line) to be more colorful and personable. The Minifigures started with amusing bios for each character on the website or on Facebook advertising the figures, but LEGO later gave up on writing for the characters since their website largely dropped the immersive play factor and narrative support.  Currently, LEGO's series are reduced to twelve characters as the standard, though there have been series with 18 or 20 to collect instead. LEGO will be shifting to cardboard boxes instead of foil packs for environmental reasons, but I really hope they put codes or tells back into the printing of the package to allow buyers the option of buying while knowing what figure they're getting. It's an open secret that you can fiddle with and squeeze the packs to feel and identify the parts and figures when they're foil-bagged, and that saved me so much money!

The Fi?ures line debuted fairly soon after LEGO's, at least after four series of Minifigures. 

The best pictures I could find of the Series 1
Fi?ures bags.

The Fi?ures format gives the line quite a lot of volume--each series is a set of 24, with that total being broken up into two subsieries--a boys' series of twelve male characters and a girls' subseries of twelve female characters. There are also two series each year, while LEGO's Minifigures line has slowed and branched out in terms of getting licensed and themed sets, so the classic unthemed series are once-a-year now. The male/female gender equity of the Fi?ures is nice to see, since the LEGO series consistently have female characters in the minority. The packaging for the series usually foregrounds a sweet princess or pretty fairy for girls and a warrior or pirate archetype for boys, and the division into subseries seems to show a (self-perpetuating, in my opinion) assumption that kids would resent or be disappointed by a character not aligned with the traditional roles of their gender. Still, the diversity of archetypes and styles within the series is good, and I think the girls' series have consistently held the greater appeal for me for the variety of characters that grabbed me. I like how the packaging depicts all 12 figures in the subseries, which makes it easier to feel for characters. With LEGO's packages having only some of the characters on the individual units, you have to check the case to look at the other characters and compare to what you're feeling. 

Playmobil's Fi?ures can be pretty heavy on the reuse. Prints from torsos or specialized divergent faces have been reused often, from Fi?ures or mainline figures, and several Fi?ures are direct reissues from earlier series, sometimes with minor changes and other times with no changes at all. This is disappointing. Playmobil's Fi?ures also have no official names and never had bios to define them, leaving some of their concepts or identities as a real guessing game, and making it hard to find some of them on eBay since names will vary from owner to owner as to what X or Y figure should be called. When in doubt, just search the series number and the vague character should pop up listed under it. 

As far as availability, Fi?ures was big challenge. LEGO Minifigures are an institution at American retailers, while Fi?ures don't seem to be purchased by many American sellers or really sell too well, so the places where I found them became scarcer and scarcer. I found some in a local shop during Series 1 and 2, when I discovered them, and then Walgreens, Toys "R" Us, and a toy store at a mall were reliable sources for finding them for series 3-10 or so. Germany and I believe the rest of Europe get Playmobil releases months ahead of the U.S., so that also made it hard to tell when the Fi?ures were delayed or not. I also never once saw Series 5 Fi?ures in person (no one seemed to get them), so I ordered a couple of those online, and after about Series 11 or so, the stores I frequented either moved out or stopped carrying Fi?ures. I was lucky enough to find them again in a toy shop at my college town a few years ago, where I got a couple, but since then, I haven't seen them. But now that dolls have gotten me into eBay, that's my source for Fi?ures I missed, and will be where I get new ones, too.

This is not a review of my entire collection or everything I've gotten. I'm not super passionate about all of the figures and Fi?ures I've gotten, so I'll keep the talk to the passion (or the brief praise for things I love but can't say much about) because that's what's fun to read.

Not all of these will be in original form, as I've swapped some parts around to reimagine or change the figures more to my liking. Unlike with fashion dolls, LEGO and Playmobil figure parts are much more modular, so I'm 99% a purist customizer with them--achieving results by swapping parts as manufactured without adding or removing paint or mixing in parts from outside sources. 

I'm also not only reviewing Fi?ures, since those are far from the only figures from Playmobil which are fascinating and dear to me-indeed, I'm listing these toys in loosely chronological release order (I don't recall precisely how many of them intersect, but I'm ballparking), and many of them are also chronological in terms of how I got them. I'm going to start with....

Special- Magician

I don't have a whole lot to say about this guy, but he's one of my oldest figures and still really appeals to me. He's so whimsical and friendly. 

His original wand was purple with yellow paint on the star, but I lost it, so he has a gold one now with a red star. I always thought the magic lamp was his accessory, but apparently, he wasn't actually sold with it. I think it suits him all the same. He's wearing a wide high-collared cape piece, which is one of the few Playmobil cape sculpts to be cast in hard plastic and not a softer plastic. His magician turban is three parts--the wizard cone attaches onto the gold piece, and the star slides into a hole at the top.

Standalone- Ghost

This was my first Playmobil monster figure, and he's a good one. He's from a small standalone set of just the figure, but wasn't part of any larger theme. 

The lantern is not original to the figure, and he once had a ball-and-chain around his foot, which I never once remembered him having. Maybe my parents confiscated that element of the set for choking hazard fears?

Under the sheet, he has the oldest Playmobil body sculpts, with a grooved torso and featureless feet. The figure originally came with light grey hair and a grey spiky chinstrap beard, but I swapped that out for a white hairpiece in the same shape and no beard.

 Here's how the figure glows.

Magic- Witch

This figure has also been translated as "Sorceress", but it's clear she's more of the classic old-hag witch. This is the first crone-witch figure I'm aware Playmobil has made, so she was essential to my collection as a lifelong fan of the classic elderly spooky witch.

This witch has shabby clothes in drab colors, a cape with a hunchback shape, and messy stringy hair with a small bun at the back. She uses a pair of glasses that include a pointy witch nose to define her face, which I'm more mixed on than I used to be when looking at Playmobil witch figures like this.

As I've already discussed, classic witches have inherited a lot of iconography originating in antisemitic hate caricatures, and pointy or hooked noses on evil witches are probably the most obvious and directly offensive case. I never look at witch monsters and assume bad faith in their design because they've become innocent quirky character visuals today, and I indulged in hooked noses a lot as a witch character designer myself because I never thought witches should be evil and I innocently thought they looked cool and hadn't learned about the social history of the image. But even if they're not hateful on purpose anymore, or if the nose is okay to use on friendly witches because there's no negative association, it's hard for me not to be uncomfortable about some of these visual hallmarks in witches these days. Even if the nose isn't taken as Jewish coding, the use of hooked noses as evil or "other" can be a problem in its own right just on the basis of physical beauty standards. I'm keeping this Witch figure together as she was sold because it's how the figure was designed and it wasn't meant with harmful intentions. We also can't say whether this witch is evil because that was left up to the people playing with the toy. That might make a difference; it might not. But I do also just think her face feels lacking in a little definition without the glasses since she has no print on it and the plain unmodified klicky smile face doesn't feel like enough to pull this particular character design together.

The Witch figure did not come with her original slippers and her broom was not her original accessory. This is what her set contained:

Here's my closest recreation with the pieces I have. Nothing is exactly the same except the campfire piece, but it's about right.

Collecting the monster histories of my favorite toys is important to me, so I'm glad to have this Witch, awkward or not.

Special- Robot

This is a new acquisition since he was an old figure I liked and I simply had to get him now that I had the means. He's a classic tin-can retro robot and a strikingly unusual figure. His helmet gives him a bucket head, but underneath, his head is silver with red face molding. His hands are both hook-shaped (the type used for pirates) in an interesting approximation of robot claws, and his feet have slots on the bottom for rollerblades to attach and give him robot wheels! 

Only the front and back wheels in bronze are moving parts,
and they seem to be real metal. They slide into the foot from
the back and stop at the front. He rolls well.

I like the segmented display on his torso. I'm not sure if there's any significance to the 495 number (it wasn't the number of his Special set). A later equivalent to this figure with more yellow body parts appeared in the Special line, and that one feels more like a colorful tin toy to me, but this one is easier to find and looks great too.

Fi?ures Series 1- Executioner

Remember how I talked about Playmobil being sweet and charming? Well, this guy caused quite a stir for being everything not that. In Playmobil's first series of boys' collectable figures, they got morbid, with depictions of Death himself, a mummy, and yet, most dark of all, they also included an axe-wielding medieval headsman. This isn't Playmobil's first executioner, with older figures similar to him being produced...but I don't know if that's better or worse! 

The hood sculpt is slightly alarming, but it's never been produced in very pale colors, so that's good. I still would have preferred it to have been rounded...but I'm also viewing this German toy sculpture through American eyes. The Executioner originally came with red arms, but I switched them to black. I wish the hands had been cast in black on either his original arms or these ones. 

Under the hood, this is what was originally sold:

I think this medieval princely hair is too fancy and noble for the bloody job of a headsman, so I switched it out to a more peasant-styled haircut.

I believe this figure's face print is entirely unique, with red jagged lines above and below the eyes that are probably meant to be intimidating face paint, but also call to mind scarring or tears of blood. Very unsettling.

It's a creepy face, but I then decided to swap it out with the masked, stubbly Zorro face (also from Series 1), which feels more nasty and brutish to me. The red-streaked face will find a good place elsewhere. It deserves to be uncovered on some other freaky person.

This is more like it.

It's just hilarious how dark Playmobil toys can be sometimes. And I have to think there's maybe some kind of sick joke behind the fact that a headsman is included in the very first batch of Playmobil figures whose heads can actually be removed...

Woe to criminals. 

Fi?ures Series 1- Grim Reaper

This was the first figure I was trying to get when I intially encountered Series 1, but I mistook the Pizza Chef's apron for this guy's cape, leaving me to have to go and seek him out on a second attempt. For a grim reaper, the design was pretty unusual, though-- a scarecrow-like hat and hair, a high-collared cape (since when?) and a neon-yellow scythe... it was weird.

The hair on the released figure was the
jagged straw-like cut, not the long
shaggy piece here.

I think they did the NERF thing with the scythe--make the weapon a bright neon color to keep it looking less violent and more toylike, but it kills the look for me. Fortunately, my collection had a dull-colored scythe and a hood and collarless cape to make him look more classical.

The toothy skull mouth is just on the edge of acceptable for me in terms of Playmobil face design. It's not my favorite, but it doesn't go too far for me.

He glows, too.

Fi?ures Series 2- Vampire Lady

This is not Playmobil's first vampire, but she's the first I owned. First, let's see her as sold:

She had an extremely un-Playmolike divergent face design, and it was a double head with the classic face on the back not satisfying me because it had no eyelashes or makeup to match the glam of the divergent face. I eventually swapped her head with the head from an EverDreamerz Lady Nightmare figure, and gave her the body of the Series 11 red-and-black witch who reused the same torso but paired it with a more appealing alternate skirt and arms with holes printed on them. 

Her hair is one of those weird ones with an X structure inside.

Fi?ures Series 2- Alien Overlord

I was not able to obtain this figure during the run of Series 2. I got him retroactively by ordering him online a few years afterward, so he was not my first alien figure, but he is the first in this review list. The guy seems to be pretty Vader-adjacent with his black helmet and cape, but his twin-barreled round gun looks almost like the Enterprise starship! 

What's really intriguing about the alien figures like this is their unique head sculpts--which are rarely afforded to any Playmobil figures! The aliens have narrower faces (still molded, though) with narrower eyes and flatter mouths, flares toward the back of the head, and a dipped forehead which pairs with a triangular hairpiece that completes the head and allows hats to attach. 

The alien head does not have a notch, and the hair instead just pops on like a cap and aligns due to the sculpt of the head. 

I don't like the choice of yellow hair for this alien. The color just doesn't work in this design. The head sculpt is really cool, and it's great to see it revived after being unused for many years prior to this Fi?ure. This head sculpt does not feature a "pop!" triangle marker on the back.

The alien originally had black standard arms without any accessories, but I swapped them out for gunmetal grey knight-armor arms to make him look more mechanical and Vaderesque.

The original arms of the figure on the collector sheet.

But eventually, the hair color bugged me and I realized I had the less interesting Series 6 alien, who had teal hair and an overall design that didn't interest me, so I swapped his head into the Overlord. The Series 6 Alien's skin is darker and has a pearly effect, and his face is molded in black, not dark brown.

I gave him back his original arms because I thought he could do without the armored ones and another figure needed them--I decided the blond alien would work great on a custom Fi?ure with a human astronaut suit, with the arms completing the costume!

The astronaut suit is very complex-- the backpack and torso piece are separate, the visor is a separate piece from the helmet, and two black hoses plug in, one on the helmet and torso, and one just on the backpack. Since I only have one of the hoses today, I'm using it on the helmet. The helmet attaches only to the torso suit piece and does not stick to the head enclosed by it.

The antenna is a separate piece, too.

On a standard figure, the torso piece slides off over the head when the hair is removed, but with the alien head, the head has to be popped out to take the suit's torso piece off. Thus, I was able to remove the suit from a mainline figure without popping. Originally, full-arm clip-ons were used for the bulky sleeves, but I prefer the armored arm sculpts for the same effect.

Here's the two aliens unmasked to compare. I'm glad I got two good figures from two so-so aliens!

Duo Pack- Vampires

These were from one of Playmobil's ongoing duo-pack sets of two unpoppable figures, and I needed them because duh and because they felt very vintage-Playmobil in the simplicity of their prints and unusual faces. 

This is what they looked like as-sold.

I just recently replaced the lady's hair with a red piece to match her eyebrows, and which changes her tone quite a lot into that of a wacky granny vampire--in a way I like. I didn't have other red options that were above the shoulder (her wings and neckpiece get in the way of long hair), but this works for me! I also gave the gentleman a high-collared black cape, which suits him better to me than the grey tattered one.

The lady's wings are attached to pins on the back of her neckpiece, and they can fold down or raise dramatically. I don't know how her wings work like this (anatomically, they should not be able to coexist with her arms; her arms would turn into them), but it looks good.

Both of these characters have unusual face prints that feel very old-style Playmobil in a way I really like. They're great figures.

Fi?ures Series 3- Statue of Liberty

This is one of several Playmobil Fi?ures to follow up on a LEGO Minifigure that did the same thing--LEGO did their Lady Liberty in their series 6 beforehand. 

I have and love this figure, but I'm too lazy to find it
and she doesn't have her tablet piece anymore.
(Render by LEGO.)

Playmobil's Liberty is considerably more simplified, but she's extremely charming. I love her monochromatic green with small touches of silver (including her face molding) to make her look metallic, and the angled torch handle is extremely clever so she can hold it aloft much more like the real statue.

The overwhelmingly repetitive Series 12 of the Fi?ures (seriously, almost every character in both S12 groups was heavily recycled from previous material!) featured one redux that I thought was kind of clever and worthwhile-- the Statue of Liberty in her brand-new golden coloration, prior to oxidizing to her famous copper green!

Don't know why she has shoes, though. That's jarring.

I didn't get this figure because the green one is better and more charming, but this variant is a worthwhile concept for something transparently repetitive. I'd definitely buy a LEGO recolor of their Liberty figure in gold (though they'd most likely release it as parts in a LEGO Store Build-a-Minifigure station--their current repository for Minifigures recolors and part rerelases).

Fi?ures Series 3- Indian Princess

I don't exactly have much to say about this figure besides the fact that she's really nicely detailed and pretty! I don't know how culturally or historically accurate she is, if at all, but the colors and details look appealing to me. There are a few of these figures like this--I keep them around and just find them appealing and well-done without much specific detail I can muster as to why I like them so much.

She had the same exact head as the Snake Charmer in Series 7, and on my figures the heads have swapped--I scraped off the eyebrows and bindi of the Princess's head to use it for someone else as a more generic tan face, and then regretted it, so the scraped head went to the Snake Charmer and the Princess got her old face back with the head swap.

Fi?ures Series 3- Spooky Scarecrow

This was a horror figure I needed instantly, particularly since LEGO hasn't offered a horror scarecrow in its own figures line--just a friendly one. I really like this figure. I think the pumpkin face is acceptable as a Playmobil design (vertical lines would have been nice, though), and the detail is great. His longcoat looks incongruously tidy next to his sleeves, torso print, and hat, but I don't know if the tattered longcoat sculpt I know exists now did at the time of this particular figure's creation. I also think his hair being orange doesn't read well, since it's strawlike but clearly not straw-colored, and the hair ought to stand out more--it could even balance the otherwise-childishly yellow pitchfork. 

The figure has a double face that I find wholly unnecessary here. The pumpkin design works as a klicky face for me, and the human face doesn't do the figure any service at all. It is cool to see a head with a face molded in black, though.

I ordered a clown figure with yellow hair to finally try out a more authentic straw look for him, and I think it worked out nicely.

Fi?ures Series 3- Translucent Robot and Fi?ures Series 10- Lady Translucent Robot

These two deserve to be talked about in one section since they're a matched pair. 

The Series 3 robot was a novelty for his clear plastic torso, arms, inner frame and legs, with blue colors and circuitry patterns defining him as a highly advanced futuristic humanoid robot. He had a bunch of sci-fi armor junk on him that didn't look super cohesive to me, and I preferred him without it. His head was glow-in-the-dark with a dark blue molded face, 

I took off all the armor stuff and replaced his head with a clear one from the Series 14 Crystal Wizard so he'd match the lady more.

The Series 10 femme equivalent of the character is mostly pretty gender-stereotypical--she's pink and she has a hand mirror instead of weapons, but I like her spiky hair (made of the same kind of rubber as LEGO rubber hair, so I don't fear it decaying fast like the majority of Playmobil rubber parts) and the way her face is printed on the clear mirror piece is amusing, since her head isn't visible enough to reflect! Unlike the boy robot as-sold, her head is translucent too, so her hair darkens it from a front view. When viewed from above, the clear heads aren't colored-in by the hair.

The lady robot has more of her signature color than the guy--her hands and frame and shoes are pink, while the Series 3 robot's shoes and frame are clear and his hands are grey.

The lady robot has feminine arms but a masculine torso with no breasts, and is the only female Playmobil figure I know of who uses a male torso without the reasoning of having to wear a torso clothing or armor piece that only male torsos fit with. 

I think it's perfectly acceptable and reasonable for a robot lady not to have been built with boobs--as long as she's comfortable that way. 

I've seen reviews getting very annoyed about even the lady figures who use male torsos for their compatibility with torso coverings, and dismissively calling those figures "men", which baffles me (and slightly raises my brows) because they're kid's toys and curves do not make the woman. I think getting ticked-off at lady figures who aren't bebreasted is ridiculous. 

Dragon Land- Wizard and Fi?ures Series 4- Green Dragon Wizard

These are two separate figures that, in my play at the time, I made into two versions of the same character--the purple-robed one with the druid headdress was the evil version, and the green wizard was the wizard after reforming and turning to good. I think it was a good idea, since I didn't like the hair and beard of the green wizard as sold--making him over like the purple one improved him. 

The black staff is awesome, but best for someone
else. (Photo by Playmobil.)

I like the purple one's rune tablet, but I don't know what the slot in the top side is for, since the hands don't grip onto it. The staff pieces are fun-- the orbs are pieces that clip in between the prongs, and can be switched out with different colors from other staffs, and the prongs are able to clip around a figure's neck if you want to have the wizard pinning an opponent to the ground!

Fi?ures Series 4 (and rereleased unchanged in Series 12)- Alien Soldier

This was actually the first Playmobil alien figure I've gotten, and he's by far my favorite they've done. I love his cool-toned color scheme and his metallic detail and his torso armor, repurposed seamlessly from a fantasy knights theme. The helmet was historically alien, with the sculpt having appeared alongside the first Playmobil aliens with this head sculpt.

The Alien Soldier's head is light blue and his face is molded in medium blue. His hair is a dark bluish grey color. 

His gun is dual-molded and has multiple attachment points. He can hold it in his hand to fire, lug it from the top by the bar on the green part, or clip onto the knobs on the side of the gun.

I really like this guy. A very similar blue alien appeared in a brilliant set concept-- a Frisbee that seats a figure, so he can pilot it as a flying saucer you throw across the yard!

Fi?ures Series 4- Mad Scientist

It's only proper we got one! This is an odd figure, since I don't think he's perfect...but I also can't think of a thing that would improve him. He's not quite the classic mad scientist in my mind (I'd want him wrapped up tighter in a white coat with buttons, maybe done with a robe-leg piece and no overcoat, and maybe with white or black hair that was more vertical), but yet I really like him. His multicolored goofy eyes suggest he's taken some of his own chemicals. His face is entirely printed and it's the only one he has. No second normal face for him. 

Fi?ures Series 5- Neon Robot

This guy was an unclear figure, likely the evil counterpart to the Series 3 robot, but I liked his dark colors, and his print referencing the robot figures that debuted in the Top Agents theme as his "skeleton". I switched out his armor, taking off the helmet and giving him a neon-and-black torso piece I thought flattered him, and gave him spikier hair (he came with the curly sculpt).

Fi?ures Series 6- Totally Not Maleficent

Photo by Playmobil.

I enioy evil sorcerors and I was amused by this figure, who's one of a few blatant copyright-skirting figures in Playmobil's repertoire. At the time, I enjoyed her divergent face print, and I loved her new slim collared cape and horned headdress, but now I find her face too ugly and un-Playmolike. Fortunately, the head is double-sided with an unadorned classic face on the other side, which suits her well. I also swapped her iron staff out for a magic tree branch to better match Maleficent's nature as an evil fairy. 

Fi?ures Series 7- Golden King and Golden Queen

These figures were the mascots of Series 7, made to celebrate the 40th (?) anniversary of Playmobil as a brand. Both figures feature very shiny metallic gold parts, with the blue King and pink Queen reigning over their sets. I think they're very interesting figures, but I switched their hair out. The King had the curly prince hair in brown and no beard, which I didn't like (a beard and hair in orange worked great with the look), and the Queen had long wavy blonde hair where I thought brown in the prince bob would work better. 

The Queen's underskirt is magenta, not golden (phooey), and has white shoes.

I remember the bags and parts of these figures smelling really odd when opening them, perhaps as a consequence of whatever process made the golden color of their unique parts? It clearly didn't kill me, but it was weird. 

Fi?ures Series 7- Poseidon

I love mythology and I love green, so this green scaly Neptune was perfect for my collection. All I had to do was add a cape to make him perfect.

I would have also loved him in blue, but greenish oceans are their own beautiful, mysterious feeling and I think that makes his parts more useful for forest folk as well--and it made his head highly useful to order spares of for customizing later figures!

Fi?ures Series 7- Scuba Diver

Uh-oh. We've got a standoff.

"YOU!"
"ME!"

Yes, this Series 7 Diver is little more than a recoloration of my old friend Derek--down to the same generic face and brown hair. The only other differences besides their color and print are that Derek used to have a wristwatch and the Series 7 Diver has a newer rubber hose shape to more closely reflect SCUBA gear. 

"You have to choose, Dmitry."
"Yeah, and choose me. ME me, not HIM me," 

I decided to keep both divers around by swapping the head and hair out and turning the newer diver into a female counterpart. Her name is Danica now.

"My name is Danica now."
"Awesome."

They seemed to make good diving buddies.

"So, what's up with you, Derek? You have a wife, kids?"
"Not anymore!" :D

Oh, dear.

Fi?ures Series 7- Hippie 

This is a pretty fun figure, though I don't like the choice of skirt here. It feels a little too short and skimpy for a hippie, who I'd associate with flowier bohemian clothing. Her center-parted hair and makeupless face feel right, though, and her braid "hat" piece extending her hairstyle is unusual. Her flower piece looks pretty fantastical and alien, but it matches the psychedelic aesthetic really well. Maybe she'd be improved by rosy cheeks, but I don't have a head like that to spare which doesn't have lashes.

Fi?ures Series 7- Nun

I think I got this one mostly because I found some novelty in the religious side of Playmobil's output.

Photo by Playmobil. Her hair is a long braid in the back.

I'm not Catholic and this figure has no personal meaning to me, but it's very atypical for mainstream toys to represent religion, and Playmobil probably only gets away with it because a huge portion of the world is Christian and they've included Christian material from the get-go. 

To make this figure make more sense in my particular collection, and because the cross on her torso essentially locks her into remaining a nun, I turned her into a ghost nun.

Fi?ures Series 8- Wicked Witch

This is probably the Fi?ure I've been the most excited for in my career collecting these blind bags. No surprises there. But this witch design was so welcome after the shabby and eclectic Series 2 witch. This design felt tidy and characterful and appealing in a unique way. I was so anxious for Series 8 to arrive, and when I first saw them in Toys "R" Us, I dove right into the packets to feel them out. I don't believe in fate, but sometimes things really seem to be looking out for me because she was literally the first blind bag I picked up. I was overjoyed, and she remains a favorite. The black, grey, and yellow-orange colors of her outfit are great, I love the feather in her hat, her nasty face, and messy red hair, and the shawl is fantastic. 

Her face is a little misprinted, though it works out to resemble scarring and a broken tooth. It's a divergent style with its eye reflections and teeth, and resembles a Super 4 face in the way it breaks from formula--which is fine by me, because Super 4 faces are generally appealing to me despite their breaks in style.

The figure proves you don't need a big nose to make a classic witch, too!

I love the way the back of her shawl is printed.

I love her.

Fi?ures Series 8- Georgian Court Lady

It's a staple in the Fi?ures line to have a fancy big-skirted lady in each female series, and very often, I like Playmobil's elegant ladies--in fact, many big-skirted Fi?ures ladies in series past my hiatus are ones I want to track down and catch up on just because I think they're so charming. For this lady from the Georgian era, I just really liked the colors and emulation of a powdered wig here.

Fi?ures Series 8- Blue Wizard and Fi?ures Series 10- Pyromancer

Fi?ures Series 8 included a blue wizard with short sleeves, a long white beard, and a tree staff with a blue crystal, and he was okay but not my favorite. 

Eh.

Fi?ures Series 10 included a fire wizard reproducing a much older figure, just with a newer staff, and a new crown reusing the Egyptian double crown mold with a black cone--a great choice.

The original Fire Wizard remade by the Series 10 Fi?ure.

I decided to turn the blue wizard into a counterpart ice wizard, using a later-released white staff with a blue orb, long-sleeved blue arms and white cuffs, a bushier beard, and a blue high-collared cape. The Pyromancer got arms with red hands and red hair and a red long beard and a black staff for the red orb. I also made the skin tones contrast, with the Pyromancer getting pale white skin and the Cryomancer getting warm orange skin. Both got elemental sparks to hold. I think they make a great pair.

Fi?ures Series 8- Pink Fairy

I thought this was a very pretty figure, and loved the pairing of pink and yellow, but her figure had a tutu and pearlescent legs as if in tights, which I didn't love. I swapped her bottom half with the Series 6 princess, which worked really well with the top to give her an elegant full dress. The wand is from the Series 10 Witch who I shockingly didn't keep intact.

Fi?ures Series 9- Cat Burglar

This started as Playmobil's unlicensed Catwoman figure:

I decided to reinvent her as a new superhero-- Acro-Bat! Her mask was reused on a bat-themed sorceress figure later, so I thought I could do it with her! I gave her bare arms, a high-collared skinny cape, and the Executioner's head so the red streaks would resemble fangs coming down from her mask.

Fi?ures Series 9- Queen of the Night

This figure was commonly misidentified as an ice princess or ice queen due to her blue colors and (thanks to Disney) her pale blonde hair, but the symbols on her skirt are clearly stars, placing her as a queen of night, if not The Queen of the Night from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. 

I had her for years in her original configuration, but decided to improve her upon revisiting her. Since the Queen of the Night is a villain and should embody the dark night sky anyway, I gave her black hair and a translucent crystal crown (now framed like a comet shard) from the Series 14 Crystal Wizard (I used a lot of his parts with other figures!) A dark blue collar bow matched her and completed her well.

I don't remember ever switching this figure's head, but she doesn't have rosy cheeks like in the picture. Maybe that's on me, maybe it's not. I think it works for Mozart's queen, though, to not be so rosy.

Fi?ures Series 10- Vampire Woman

Despire being similar on the surface to the Series 2 Vampire, this one is a more modern or youthful take with a skinny body, and introduced an "evil fairy" face with red pupils that I think is perfect, and makes her look great. This figure required no tweaking.

Her hair has a peg for accessories, and she debuts a bat-shaped one. I prefer to have it so the bat faces outward because that makes the piece more flush to her hair.

If the bat faces her, the accessory feels like it's sticking out away from her head.

Fi?ures Series 11- Ghost Butler

This figure was interesting because spooky butlers are fun and he introduced a new serving dish.

I switched him over to a ghost face I scraped the eye paint off, since his head went to the Nun, and gave him glow-white shaggy hair that doesn't fit a hat. I don't adore the result, so I can come back to him. Maybe get another copy for the original look back, or dismantle the Nun. 

The Butler has a clear stand that slides between his feet because the figure is quite front-heavy with the serving dish. It opens up to reveal a translucent pink jelly skull sitting on a plate with creepy spaghetti depicted by a sticker.

The dish holds closed when the lid is on, but pulls open fairly easily too. The skull fits on a skeleton figure, but not super well, which may be because the skull sculpt got updated and newer skeleton figures would fit this jelly skull better.

Here's how he glows.

Fi?ures Series 11- Steampunk Gent

I don't consider myself a huge steampunk nerd, but I enjoy the aesthetic and this was an exceptionally detailed Fi?ure. 

The goggles and the antenna and clip on the gun are separate parts, and the dial on the
gadget on the front of the strap is a sticker you apply.

The levers on the back gadget are static and the brown piece
is a shell over the gold piece.

Very intricate. 

Fi?ures Series 11- Sunflower Woman

I love the look of this figure--a sleepy or otherwise serene folkloric flower gardener who seems to be a spirit of nature. This is her only face, and it's printed, but it works. Her sunflower hat is actually child-sized and so it doesn't fit her head great, but it squeezes on.

After the time I got the Sunflower Woman, I went Playmobil-dry for over three straight years up until deciding to diversify this blog and tunnel-visioning into Playmobil catch-up! Next post will be (maybe only part 1 of) explorations of all-new acquisitions from Playmobil's output after my collecting hiatus!